House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s insistence that Congress not approve emergency aid to states battered by Hurricane Irene unless it makes offsetting budget cuts elsewhere first has drawn an ANGRY RESPONSE from fellow Republican Chris Christie (above), the governor of New Jersey:

“Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress] can all go down there and get back to work and figure out budget cuts later,” the Republican governor told a crowd in the flood-ravaged North Jersey town of Lincoln Park.

Not surprisingly, THIS NEW JERSEY PAPER says politicians of Cantor’s ilk “have forgotten how to be human.”

Columnist Bill Press LIKENS Cantor’s stance to telling victims of Irene’s wrath: “We won’t help you recover from getting wiped out by the hurricane unless we first cut your Social Security and Medicare.”

[T]he national bogeyman seems to be the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has Tea Party pied pipers like [Ron] Paul and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in full caterwauling mode over what is clearly a dark government conspiracy to help a bunch of lazy, shiftless people who irresponsibly allowed themselves to be flooded out of their homes.

And lets not even get started on those layabouts in Joplin, Mo., who intentionally built their residences directly in the path of tornadoes just so they could get fat and happy mooching off the taxpayers.

“The best hard data [that such a line of attack will work] is the number of Republicans that are running away from it,” a Democratic aide told TPM, pointing to statements by Republican governors of storm-damaged states that disagree with Cantor. “They wouldn’t be running away from it if it wasn’t a politically unsafe position.”